Tragon's Behests

Image by liuzshan on freepik In 1E AD&D character creation is a process and it works a little different than some 5E players are used to.  In some ways it's more restrictive and limiting than in 5E, but this also makes us play the characters differently. First, the character's race drives everything.  That's right, I said the "r" word.  In AD&D race refers to whether a character is human, a dwarf, an elf, a half elf, a gnome, a halfling, or a half orc.  Those are the only options in 1E AD&D. Race drives everything because race modifies ability scores (for example, dwarves get a +1 on their constitution but a -1 on their charisma), limits ability scores (a female halfling can have a maximum strength of a 14 for example), and can limit both character class options and the maximum level a character can achieve.   Once a character race is determined, it's time to determine ability scores.  The default way is to either roll a 3d6 or a 4d6 keepin...

Our December 23rd session was one of those crossroad sessions.  There were several options in terms of where our characters could go.  The session began where the last one left off, the party had been pressured by the number three priest of the cult for Rectus Deus to do something about a criminal boss.  The only clue that the party received was that they should start at a place called Meghan's Inn. Meghan's Inn is near Meghan's Insula with is on the other side of the fountain from Meghan's Home for Wayward Souls.  All of this is located near the compounds of the city guard near the front gate of the city.   The party had a great plan that involved one member going inside the Inn and getting Meghan's attention while the magic user would cast a charm spell on Meghan.  As usual things did not go quite as planned! The Inn was full of half orcs and ogres working there.  Turns out that Meghan's businesses provide employment for half orcs and ogres as w...

Image by freepik.com In AD&D, characters earn experience points as they adventure.  When they earn enough experience points they are able to advance in level.  This means more hit points, more spells, more powerful spells, and better abilities in combat.  This is a pretty important part of the original game in 1E ,which is the kind of games that I run.  With this post we'll talk about awarding experience points (XP) in the game. Combat This is probably the most obvious.  In 1E a foe's worth in XP is based upon how strong they are (i.e. their hit dice or level), whether they have special abilities or exceptional ones, and how many hit points there are.  Normally this gets divided up amongst every character that participated in the combat.  For example, if Bob hangs back and doesn't do anything then he doesn't get any XP for the combat session. What about if monsters are weaker than the party?  For example, a group of 9th level characters encoun...

Image by masadepan on freepik.com Players want their players to level up, it's one of the reasons we all play the game.  Leveling up means more spells, better abilities, more hit points, access to bigger/badder foes and treasure, etc.  In 1E AD&D, leveling up is not an automatic thing and there can be restrictions.  These can be adjustments for players that are used to other editions. First, in theory human characters could advance to almost unlimited level in every class except druids assassins, and monks.  So the game doesn't end at 20th level.  This means that there's a possibility to set up kingdoms, fortresses, create magic items, create spells, and advance the game in some interesting directions.  Now, for reasons we'll talk about in a minute it isn't practical to have 100th level characters (for example). Let's start with restrictions.  In 1E there are level restrictions for different character races.  Elves, dwarves, half elves, halfli...

Image by derich on freepik.com Our characters are in the city and just finishing leveling up and as a result we're 20 weeks into the campaign in game time.  Our party now ranges from second level multi-class characters to fourth level characters.  I'll make a post about leveling up later this week, always a point of contention with players! The party was approached by one of the blacksmiths from the Merchant District.  Turns out the merchants are being shaken down by a mean and heavily armed group as part of a protection racket.  Those merchants who refuse are beaten and the one that went to the city guard was found in pieces later. The party decided to let the collections happen, then followed the collector to their hide out, which was an old warehouse in the wrong part of town.  The first floor of the warehouse was pretty empty except for barrels of rotting and spoiled food, cobwebs, and lots of dust.  The entire first floor smelled really bad.  It h...

Image by masadepen on  Freepik Sometimes pure hack and slash play can become boring and unchallenging.  This is bad for players, but it's also bad for the DM who (hopefully) is doing this for fun as well.  In this post I have a few thoughts for how to make the boss fight a little more interesting. Level it appropriately It's not my goal to kill the party.  If I kill the party then they might not want to play and things might get really boring for me.  Having said that, I want it to be suspenseful and I want their pulse to quicken when we get to some of these encounters.  So my goal is to level up minor encounters to cost them hit points and the boss fight is meant to take some characters down really low.  Now, the dice may take it in a different direction but that keeps it interesting! With all that said, encounters that lead up to the boss fight are designed to weaken the party.  Drop their hit points (remember, in 1E you recover 1 hit point a we...

Our 1E AD&D campaign continued on the 2nd.  Our heroes had cleared out the tower in the forest and the temple beneath it that was teeming with undead.  Now it was time to head back and resolve several of the side quests that they were on.   Unfortunately, unlike the way to the tower, the way back was filled with random encounters (luck of the dice on that one) including extra large and aggressive wolves and a pack of gnolls.  Our party returned to the mystic's compound to be healed and to collect Ferris.  Ferris had been escorted by the party to the mystic because he had been possessed and only the mystic could help.  The party was to escort him back to the city of Greymane, but he didn't want to go!  He is now a convert and wants to stay in the mystic's compound, make his own clothes, grow his own food, and pray a lot.  The party asked for him to write a letter letting the head of the Mage's Guild know that he is not coming back.  T...